Georgia Public Service Commissioner Sees Israel Through a New Lens - His Own Eyes

Tim Echols,is a Georgia Public Service Commissioner, who is currently in Israel with American Jewish Committee's Project Interchange.

 These people not only survive, but they thrive. I am talking about the Israelis. We in the United States have a few things we can learn
from them too, and I have had a chance to see it first-hand on my week-long tour of Israel with a delegation participating in American
Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange seminar for Georgia elected officials.
           First of all, Israel is all about innovation. Dan Senor, co-author of the book Start-up Nation, describes a key difference between Israeli youth and their American counterparts. “Israeli youth, because almost all have to serve in the military for three years, have their
head in a different place by the time they get to college.” And, as any veteran in the US military knows, military service brings with it
maturity and perspective, and most importantly for the Israeli, an opportunity to innovate.
          What does that mean exactly? Well, in America, we put a high value on authority and following orders. If you challenge that authority in business, in the military or elsewhere, you do so at your own peril. In Israel, challenging authority is not only normal, but it is encouraged. In the Israeli military, they give missions with minimum guidance, and encourage adaptive problem solving. In fact, Senor says, the Israeli ethos is to teach people to be good at a lot of things, rather than be excellent at one thing.
           Do we do this in America? Not as a matter of course. But If we did, we would do our kids a favor I think. Here’s why. In my regulatory duties, I am seeing all too frequently that we have a shortage of skilled workers: that would be welders, pipefitters, equipment
operators and the like. Yet we have a plethora of college grads, even with graduate degrees, who cannot find jobs. I have three degrees
myself, and cannot even change my own oil.
           We place such a high value on college education, and I think we often look down our nose at people who don’t have a degree. But maybe we should change our thinking. Let’s encourage more of our students to enter the military or go to technical college. To fuel the fire for this, let’s drop the study hall, and require our high school students to take a course in auto mechanics or welding or other technical courses.
            I just visited a boarding school for at risk youth in Northern Israel where they provide these kids, all from disadvantaged and extremely challenging home conditions, special tracts to help integrate them into society, providing them with the skills necessary to succeed in such fields as mechanics, agricultural technicians, and care givers. They have seen incredible success preparing these kids to become productive members of their community. Let’s tweak the college majors and have students do their electives in something practical or hands-on, and I am not talking about the “Underwater Basket-weaving 101” course at UGA that my GA Tech friends
joke about.
          I recently toured the John Deere plant in Grovetown near Augusta Plant officials told me that military veterans are their best employees. The Army and other branches are doing something right in how they train job skills. We see those commercials on television about the “career” benefits of military service, but factory officials tell me it’s true. Add to their skills training the entrepreneurial
acumen from battlefield experience and it is easy to understand why vets make good employees. Yet only 1 in 221 Americans are in active
duty service compared to 1 in 10 during the Second World War era. In Israel, it is 1 in 2. We need to think about this.
       Finally, Americans need a dose of Israeli “chutzpah.” Chutz-what? you say. Chutzpah is that gall, brazen nerve, guts, and presumption plus arrogance, Senor says. It is everywhere in Israel too. It feels a lot like argumentativeness, but it is different. It is assertiveness,
not insolence. It is independent thinking, not insubordination. It is ambition and vision, not arrogance. The differences here appear to be
only slight, but they describe the typical Israeli entrepreneur.
       Israel is our friend, and they have much to teach us still. I don’t know about you, but I need a little chutzpah in my stocking this year.   
       Tim Echols is a Georgia Public Service Commissioner on a leader exchange trip to Israel. Reach him at techols@psc.state.ga.us